FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LAS VEGAS—Global rock icons Metallica made history during their residency at the Las Vegas Sphere. The legendary band proved their versatility by performing a Metallica Sphere setlist on night two that featured zero heavy metal. Band members swapped their signature electric guitars for accordions and washboards. The 16-song acoustic performance contained no repeated songs from their opening night.
A Bold Sonic Pivot
The band designed the acoustic show to push the limits of the venue's $2.3 billion audio system. Fans expecting pyrotechnics and heavy riffs instead received a masterclass in European folk music. James Hetfield played a customized acoustic lute. Lars Ulrich traded his massive drum kit for a single wooden Cajón box. The new Metallica Sphere setlist left many lifelong metalheads in complete silence.
"We wanted to leverage our spatial audio technology to its absolute limit," said Barnaby Quill, Senior Analyst of Unsolicited Forecasts at Goldman Sachs. "Our algorithms predicted that playing 'Enter Sandman' on a glockenspiel would increase brand synergy by twelve percent. The data does not lie. The crowd's confusion was acoustically perfect."
Visualizing the Accordion
The 160,000-square-foot LED screen displayed high-definition visuals of digital rain and slow-moving wheat fields. The band refused to play any of their radio hits. Instead, they focused on unreleased sea shanties. The crowd watched in awe as the massive screen projected a 3D render of a single, rotating acoustic guitar pick for ninety minutes. This artistic choice highlighted the acoustic nature of the second Metallica Sphere setlist.
"We are constantly reinventing the live entertainment paradigm," said Marcus Bellweather, Sphere's Senior VP of Playlist Emotional Intelligence. "Metallica showed that you do not need distortion to melt faces. You just need sixty-four thousand speakers and a very expensive concert ticket."
About Metallica: Metallica is an American thrash metal band formed in 1981. They have sold over 125 million albums worldwide. Despite their massive success, the band currently operates as a tax write-off for a major beverage conglomerate. They have not enjoyed the sound of distorted guitars since 1997.
